Free Republic

Smoke it if you’ve got it. That pretty much sums up the approach of London Mayor Sadiq Khan to personal drug use as he backed calls Wednesday for small quantities of cannabis to be decriminalised and “negate problems between the police and ethnic communities.” He was endorsing a report by the London Drugs Commission, chaired by former Labour cabinet minister Lord Falconer, which makes 42 recommendations, including removing natural cannabis from the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA). Lord Falconer told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme, “continuing to have possession as a crime meant continuing have problems between the police and...

***[Elton] John, who had a notorious drug addiction during the 1970s and 1980s but has been clean and sober for decades, made [the following] statement in [an] interview: John now divides his life into pre- and post-sober periods. … Those struggles have made him doubt the wisdom of legal weed. “I maintain that it’s addictive. It leads to other drugs. And when you’re stoned—and I’ve been stoned—you don’t think normally,” he says. “Legalizing marijuana in America and Canada is one of the greatest mistakes of all time.”John couldn’t be more right.***We’ve long known that marijuana use damages the brain, especially...

As weed has become easier to obtain, it has become harder to smoke.A strange thing has happened on the path to marijuana legalization. Users across all ages and experience levels are noticing that a drug they once turned to for fun and relaxation now triggers existential dread and paranoia. “The density of the nugs is crazy, they’re so sticky,” a friend from college texted me recently. “I solo’d a joint from the dispensary recently and was tweaking just walking around.” (Translation for the non-pot-savvy: This strain of marijuana is not for amateurs.)

Former President Donald Trump advocated for legislation in Florida that would prevent marijuana from being used in public spaces, adding that people did not need to smell it everywhere. In a post on Truth Social, Trump spoke about Florida’s Amendment 3, which would allow adults 21 and older to possess, buy, or use marijuana for non-medical reasons. Trump noted that in an effort to make sure marijuana legalization is “done correctly,” the State Legislature needed to “responsibly create laws that prohibit” marijuana from being used in public spaces, “so we do not smell marijuana everywhere we go.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans’ views of the effects of marijuana have worsened over the past two years, as slim majorities now say it negatively impacts both society as a whole (54%) and most people who use it (51%). This contrasts with Gallup’s findings from 2022, when the public was about evenly divided in its assessments of marijuana’s effect on society and more likely to say the effect on most users was positive (53%) rather than negative (45%).

A horrific crash that killed six high school girls in Oklahoma two years ago has the head of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board urging parents to warn teenagers about the risk of driving after using marijuana. Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy made the appeal to parents Thursday as her agency released the final report on the March 22, 2022 collision between a tiny Chevrolet Spark hatchback and a gravel-hauling semi in the small town of Tishomingo. The board, after an investigation by its staff, determined that the crash was caused by the 16-year-old driver slowing for an intersection, then accelerating through...

Joe Biden's pitch to voters is increasingly reminding me of a used car salesman desperate to stop a prospective buyer from leaving the lot. "Sure, this ride may not sound great. It's slow and runs inconsistently, and it definitely has a few more miles on it than you'd like, but if you buy it we'll throw in Supreme Court reform free of charge. And have I mentioned that we'll expunge the records of anyone convicted of marijuana possession just as soon as your check clears (and we have the votes)?" President Biden @POTUS I'm making sure no one goes to...

Marijuana use has risen dramatically, and it’s killing Americans — so why does the Biden White House want to make the problem worse? *** Simply put, increased marijuana use has led to significantly more Americans being killed on our nation’s roads — as people are not only driving while stoned but driving while stoned and drunk. ... A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health ... found that the percentage of car crash deaths in America that involved marijuana has skyrocketed since 2000. … So the total percentage of car crash deaths involving cannabis, either with or...

Hospitalization risk 80% higher versus nonusersCannabis use was significantly associated with a greater risk of severe outcomes following a COVID-19 infection, according to a retrospective study that spanned the first 2 years of the pandemic. Among more than 70,000 patients with a documented case of COVID at a large medical center in the Midwest, use of cannabis was linked with an 80% greater risk of hospitalization and a 27% higher risk for intensive care unit (ICU) admission after an infection, but no difference in all-cause mortality: Hospitalization: OR 1.80 (95% CI 1.68-1.93) ICU admission: OR 1.27 (95% CI 1.14-1.41) Mortality:...

A FOX News poll shows enough support from Florida voters to pass a constitutional amendment that would enshrine the right to get an abortion. TAMPA - There will be two big amendments on the November ballot, which are expected to bring a lot of voters to the polls in Florida. The Florida Supreme Court ruled in April to let voters decide on whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use and whether to give access to abortion up to 24 weeks. The current laws for marijuana are only for medicinal use. The current abortion laws just tightened in the state to...

Millions of people in the U.S. report using marijuana daily or nearly every day, according to an analysis of national survey data, and those people now outnumber those who say they are daily or nearly-daily drinkers of alcohol. Alcohol is still more widely used, but 2022 was the first time this intensive level of marijuana use overtook daily and near-daily drinking, said the study’s author, Jonathan Caulkins, a cannabis policy researcher at Carnegie Mellon University. “A good 40% of current cannabis users are using it daily or near daily, a pattern that is more associated with tobacco use than typical...

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will take a historic step toward easing federal restrictions on cannabis, with plans to announce an interim rule soon reclassifying the drug for the first time since the Controlled Substances Act was enacted more than 50 years ago, four sources with knowledge of the decision said. The Drug Enforcement Administration is expected to approve an opinion by the Department of Health and Human Services that marijuana should be reclassified from the strictest Schedule I to the less stringent Schedule III. It would be the first time that the U.S. government has acknowledged its potential medical...

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL—Governor Ron DeSantis is worried that if marijuana (pot) is legalized in Florida, the whole Sunshine State will smell like pot. “It’s basically a license to have it anywhere you want. No time, place, and manner restrictions. This state will start to smell like marijuana in our cities and towns, it will reduce the quality of life,” DeSantis said at a Thursday press conference in Fort Lauderdale. The Florida Supreme Court voted Monday in a 5-2 decision to allow recreational marijuana on the November general election ballot. The measure—Amendment 3—would legalize recreational use for adults 21 and over...

A study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association and funded by the National Institutes of Health found that those who smoke weed daily are at a significantly higher risk of suffering heart attack and stroke than those who don’t. “We know that toxins are released when cannabis is burned, similar to those found in tobacco smoke,” said Abra Jeffers, a data analyst at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and former researcher at the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco, where the study was based. “We’ve known for a long...

Mike Tyson calls out Joe Biden.Legendary boxer Mike Tyson has long been an advocate for cannabis and now owns a cannabis company called “Tyson 2.0.” As a result, he’s now calling out United States President Joe Biden for failing to uphold his campaign promise to release incarcerated marijuana offenders. In a recent letter to Joe Bide and the White House, Mike Tyson called on the president to offer clemency to all those incarcerated on charges related to marijuana. “I write in support of granting clemency to marijuana offenders still incarcerated in federal prison and restoring civil rights to those haunted...

A California woman who stabbed a man she was dating 100 times and killed him, before turning the knife on herself and her dog, has been handed 100 hours of community service. Bryn Spejcher, 32, was given the astonishingly low sentence following psychiatrists' ruling that the tragedy was '100 percent' caused by cannabis-induced psychosis, which she suffered after taking two hits of the victim's bong. The judge ruled that Spejcher 'experienced a psychotic break from reality' and 'had no control over her actions' when she killed Chad O'Melia, then 26, on Memorial Day weekend 2018. She will spend the 100...

President Joe Biden took major action ahead of the holiday and pardoned all Americans arrested, prosecuted, or convicted on federal charges for marijuana use, following through on his 2020 campaign promise to expunge cannabis use offenses. Biden signed a proclamation Friday that forgives U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents caught by law enforcement for possessing the drug and charged, going far beyond the sweeping actions he took last year for thousands of people convicted of possession. The new action includes "additional offenses of simple possession and use of marijuana under federal and D.C. law," the White House said in a...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Voters in Ohio have approved an initiative to become the 24th state in the nation to legalize recreational marijuana, the Associated Press has projected. Issue 2 passed on Tuesday’s ballot to allow adult-use sale, purchase and possession of cannabis for Ohioans who are 21 and older. The measure, effective 30 days after the election, permits adults to possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana, up to 15 grams of marijuana concentrate and grow up to six plants at home. Those in Ohio who purchase cannabis will pay a 10% excise tax, the same rate as Michigan...

Marijuana, cannabis, pot, weed—call it what you will, the psychoactive drug is incredibly popular. This is especially true in the United States, where weed is big business. A staggering 16 percent of Americans—roughly 54 million—admit to smoking weed. In 2021, 13 percent said they smoked the drug.According to a recent Brightfield Group report, the annual revenue of the U.S. weed industry is estimated to reach $31.8 billion by the end of the year. By 2028, the industry is expected to be worth $50.7 billion. In New York City alone, legal marijuana appears set to become a $1.2 billion-a-year industryIn recent...

A nationwide social experiment launched by a wave of marijuana legalizations is finally bearing results in the form of higher depression rates and addiction. It started in 2012 in Colorado and Washington, setting off a domino effect that has seen restrictions lifted across nearly 40 states, including 23 where it's legal to use marijuana recreationally. The Biden administration now aims to demote the drug from its schedule I status, which lumped it in with heroin and LSD, to schedule III, the first step toward total decriminalization at a federal level. Marijuana has been lauded for its purported benefits for pain...